“When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it.”-Hugh Newell Jacobson

Saturday has served its time. Were ya'll productive? yes or no is a good answer because it's the weekend, so I like to think that on the weekends I am my own boss. If i boss myself to nap, OR run a marathon, either way I am productive bc I did what I was told. :) You can never fail on a weekend. In my case, I feel very lucky...because I am part of the 33% of the United States who is unemployed...haha. Life is good-

Congrats to Hebron High School Softball program for making it to state! woo hoo---I have seen Heather (the pitcher) grow from throwing 11 inch balls into the lights (stadium lights) at Hebron to striking 18 batters out a game...I've known heather's pitching coach for quite some time :)

About my day: Woke up, showered, got ready,ate breakfast...(i had berries again and tea made of herbs from the garden in hot water. YUMM) and took the train to Stockholm, Sweden's capital. When I got off the train, I got that city feeling. Heeeckkk Yesss! I love big cities. Stockholm is different than American cities. There is more space, so the buildings do not have to be as tall, but it has that "hustle bustle"/"time is money" atmosphere that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE. it was great. Different stores than the US to shop in. I took this trip as a "look only" kind of deal, because I wanted to scope everything out. I think I am going to go back on Tuesday...and buy a couple of things. It was a long day of walking around the city- my legs are tired, and my brain gets tired. I take for granted the luxury and ease of knowing the language. In the US I know all the stores, and if I dont, I juts read the sign/figure it out. Here...I know NOTHING. literally. But through learning casual things, I realized I am learning culture, language, sounds, you know stuff like that.

I want some new converse tennis shoes. People cant function day to day in wedge heels the way that I do at home because we ride the bikes/walk everywhere. So I need some fashionable flat tennis shoes to wear every day. It is very popular for girls and guys to wear their outfit that matches and then wear a pair of converse shoes no matter what the color. I kind of like the look. I looked today and I am debating between this really cool shade of purple, or this really bright melon color. What do yall think?

It's Saturday, so following Swedish tradition I got some candy from the store before the train ride home. In Sweden it is looked upon to only eat sweets (cokes, cookies, candy, icecream) on the weekends. Sounds really good, but come Saturday my sweet tooth is so big....i eat enough sweets to last me the entire month...and I'll probably do it every Saturday, so Im really not helping myself any. Oh well, I just keep telling myself I am my own boss for now. haha.

Ok, after eating my weight in candy, I came home. My mom and I walked Ludde (dog) and then watched some news videos on the internet. Like shocking stories, they were kind of cool. Ofcourse seeing anyone else in trauma is "knee slapping" funny to me. I think my mom was kind of worried what a kick I got out of other peoples setbacks. But it was funny: one thing we watched was this 2 year old boy smoking cigarettes...OMG, ya'll look it up. its hilarious. chubby little thing...just smoking away. I about died, id like to meet him.

Then we got some pizza. Swedish pizza is always served with cabbage in oil and vinegar. It is really good. and then the pizza ofcourse is different. really flat, hardly any bread, hardly any tomato sauce, hardly any chese, and like half a tomato on top. so basically its non existant...pretty good though. haha. i crack myself up, really its unhealthy.

After watching TV with the rents, I came in my room just in time for beautiful Bridget Johnston herself to skype me! (i was STILL eating candy) Tomorrow is Mother's Day and Karen's birthday. We are going to have ficka (dont know how to spell-pronounced Fee-kuh) at Karens twin sisters house. Ficka means like coffee and a snack, or choice of drink and choice of snack. So basically it means break time from work and talk time. haha. In America we say...happy hour? hahaha. Mother's day is pronounced morris dog in swedish. but the r sound rolls, and the s sound isnt clean, its kind of like sch. the o sound is like oa in this case. alright enough learning for Saturday night.

I think I attached a picture, and it is not of the streets in Stockholm, but it is inbetween stores. So in downtown there are big streets, and then there are walk ways between places. this would be a walk way.

I think that is all for me tonight. Have beautiful dreams...of shannon meeting friends (cute ones) and becoming successfully wealthy one day...wealthy enough to afford an international cell phone so I can text message while traveling the globe :(

night night

"work hard, play harder"

Shann

#1 on the field, #1 in your heart.